Relative seeks steps to trace missing couple at Mecca

Tirunelveli: Five days after the Mecca stampede which claimed hundreds of lives, a relative of a couple in the district today complained to the Sub-Collector of Tenkasi that their whereabouts were not known.

In a memorandum to Sub-Collector Venkatesh, the relative Jammal Mohammed urged the Union Government to ascertain the status of the couple, Mohaideen Mohammed Paris (44), and Tameem Fathima (32) who went for Haj pilgrimage.

He said they spoke to him before leaving for the pilgrimage but now their fate was not known. Jamal said his niece Tameem and her husband, who was working with a company at Saudi Arabia, had left for the pilgrimage leaving their children Salmas Pavaz and Abdul Rahman at home.

After the stampede, their whereabouts were not known. There was no information from them so far. He was not able to contact them either. Now their two children were in the custody of the Haj committee. Government should take steps to trace them, he said in the memorandum.